Transforming Vision Care for Georgians in Need
Welcome
Thank you for your interest in the Georgia Lions Lighthouse Foundation, Inc. We are excited to share with you highlights from our past fiscal year FY 2023 (July 1, 2022 – June 30, 2023), including demographics and finances with our continued focus on the future vision needs of Georgians.
Served Over 18,757 Patients!! It is unacceptable that any Georgian is unable to access vision care. Yet today, there are 1.4 million Georgians who lack health care coverage. Research by Emory Eye Center also identified 52 counties in Georgia where there are few, if any, vision care providers. That’s why from July 2022 – June 2023 Georgia Lions Lighthouse Foundation, in partnership with Georgia Lions, SERVED OVER 18,757 PATIENTS.
Vision Exams
1,734
Fabricated Eye Glasses
4,504
Our surgical coordination services allow Georgians, who do not have insurance or the means to pay for surgeries such as glaucoma, cataracts, and macular degeneration, to receive the care they need at no charge. This year we served 133 patients through 329 procedures, providing $63,350 in charitable care, and received $442,578 in in-kind ophthalmology, anesthesia, and surgical centers/hospital care. We continue to offer frame kits to Georgia optometrists, ophthalmologists and Lions Clubs for patients who cannot afford to pay for their glasses. We provided eyeglasses to 592 Georgians through the frame kit program. In January 2023, I led a group consisting of board members, staff, community partners and donors in a strategic planning session to guide us over the next three years. We started with a vision of where we want to be in ten years. Our goals include satellite offices, additional lanes of tele-optometry and traditional equipment, revamping the Chamblee clinic with new equipment, and essentially, becoming the premiere vision care non-profit in the state of Georgia. As we approach our 75th anniversary, we look forward to engaging our community partners and neighbors, Lions Clubs, donors and volunteers in our celebration.
Well before the completion of the one-year pilot project, we knew that tele-optometry had made a huge impact on Georgians who had little to no access to vision services. Partnering with Federally Qualified Health Centers and Public Health Nursing Agencies to bring high quality, high-tech care is a game changer. In the southeastern United States, access to vision providers, especially in rural areas depicts the vision desert for Georgians in desperate need of care. In the first year, we served 29 counties and 1,054 patients. We know that we can and will do more in the future and are raising funds to provide a second lane of tele-optometry equipment and staffing. Our collaborative work with the Lions Clubs and the Federally Qualified Health Centers was also recognized in The Advance newspaper regarding the Lions Club of Lyons and the Lyons Mercy Clinic in February 2023 and in other news outlets in the various counties we serve. For the collaborative work that we do through partner agencies, we received the Healthcare Heroes Award for Community Outreach in the May 26th-June 1, 2023, edition of the Atlanta Business Chronicle . Our traditional mobile and on-site Chamblee Clinics also received a boost this year as we developed contracts with new optometrists. We are very excited to be able to provide traditional mobile clinics for various populations, such as shelters, refugee services, and on-site school clinics and to have doctors available for our Chamblee Clinic. We served 480 patients through our traditional mobile clinics and 2,614 patients through our Chamblee Clinic. Exams performed represented $319,500 in in-kind services at a value of $250 per exam.
Financed Surgery Procedures
329
Vision Screenings
12,190
TOTAL PATIENTS
18,757
Counties Served with Vision Services by Georgia Lions Lighthouse Foundation Georgia Lions Lighthouse Foundation is committed to providing the Georgians in the 52 counties with little to no vision services, the full spectrum of high-quality vision care. If they don’t have it, we will take the services to them through our tele-optometry program and our traditional mobile clinics.
Counties Served
Most counties in Georgia have little or no access to eye care.
Available Eye Care by County in Georgia* 0
6-10 11-25
1-2 3-5
*Source: Emory Eye Center
Georgia Lions Lighthouse Foundation received the Atlanta Business Chronicle’s 2023 Health Care Heroes Community Outreach . This Award recognized 70 years of providing vision services to underserved Georgians and the successful launch of an advanced technology tele-optometry program to aid 52 rural Georgia counties without access to vision professionals. Community Outreach Award
Beth Ehrhardt GLLF Executive Director
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